Happy Halloween from the Third World!

Graveyard picnics and family reunions on 1 November. Photo courtesy of INQ7.net. Bikoy.net has more.

HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES, 31 October doesn’t mean lootbags, candy, scary costumes and trick-or-treating. It means a war-for-oil-worthy preparation for the equally agonizing bloodbath the following day. 1 November. All Saints’ Day. Yet they call it here as, from a very rough translation of the Filipinos’ Araw ng mga Patay, the day of dead. They go to memorial parks, clean up their departed loved ones’ tombs, and light up some candles and offer flowers. By they, I mean millions of them. Memorial parks on this very day are so crowded with not-entirely-odor-free relatives and visitors that traffic has to be majorly rerouted, probably for people who have no business with memorial parks and no intentions of having picnics in graveyards to save themselves from all the ruckus. And probably all the stench, too.

It is a smelly and potentially chaotic (oh well, so much for understatements) affair. Having established in previous posts (on this blog and others, too) that most Filipinos are uncivilized, undisciplined barbarians bastards, something is bound to go wrong. And most of the time, more than just something goes wrong. That’s why the police are deployed on this day at all memorial parks. According to the news, this year, they are deploying 15,000 police officers from today until 2 November. I wish they would deploy the Hilter guys instead. So they could shoot people’s heads off at the slightest hint of a commotion. Or a stupid deed. These millions are going to lessen to a mere thousands if that would be the case.

Point to make: This occasion is fine. But it doesn’t have to be done in a collective (and therefore hysterical) manner. The people are given a year to do this and they all choose to do it on the same day. It’s just following tradition, yes, but it is illogical. It’s a waste of energy and resources and the budget for police deployment can be used for better things, like public education (oh they sooo badly need it) or whatever.

The existence of and the logic behind traditions are almost never questioned. I guess this says that much about how average Filipino brain works. ALWAYS DO AS THEY SAY. WHAT DO WE STAND TO LOSE IF WE FOLLOW THIS BIT OF IRRATIONALITY? NOTHING! That’s the Filipino motto.

Maybe it’s like Christmas, we have all year to go shopping, yet most people wait until at least November/December to do their shopping 🙂

I know there’s a similar tradition in Bali where every so often they dig up their relatives and clean their bones, which sounds very creepy indeed. Is this the same kind of thing? Or do the Filipinos just have a picnic?

I’ve never heard of people going to memorial parks / graveyards like that…. Strange tradition indeed. And to have a picnic there? Really strange to me – but hey, if all the world was the same, it’d be boring 😉

Just a correction: you say “developing countries” and not “third world countries”, as in nations like the Philippines, Brazil, etc; “developed countries” and not “first world countries” as in nations like Canada, the United States, etc. 😀

we have our own culture so just respect that. Americans have different culture than ours, and thats fine by me.
“It’s a waste of energy and resources and the budget for police deployment can be used for better things, like public education (oh they sooo badly need it) or whatever.”

For you its a waste of money but for us its not. I personally see thanksgiving day as a waste of money too but then again that’s the American way of expressing their feelings and emotions about thanksgiving day.

Bottomline: better respect each other’s culture. Not because you don’t like it, everybody doesnt like it too. Youre so pathetic!

I belong to one of those families who used to have picnics where the deceased rest in peace. Good thing we don’t do that now… Good thing we’ve changed and just pray for the dead whenever we have time to visit them. Now I feel normal.

Congratulations to you. You have made logic win over tradition. You’re now one of us. Just wait for the cute little blue G to glow in your eyes. If it doesn’t, please text JOIN to 2277. LOL. Thanks for your visit.